Split to Venice ( and back again) June, 2024

(This is a big one sorry)

Venice was never part of our master plan, we'd been there a few time before we purchased NJ, but here we were on our floating home, and only 200 miles from Venice you have to do it right… I mean, who gets to say “Oh yeah, I sailed my yacht into Venice once”. Wait till you hear what we did once we were there though…

We had  6 weeks to get up there and back again, so we took our time and did some exploring on the way. 

Rogoznica

First stop was the little town of Rogoznica. A cute place with lots of holiday homes peppered along the shoreline. The central part of town is located on a small island within the harbour. A great place to stop and stock up on provision.

Skradin and the famous Krka Waterfalls

From Rogoznica we sailed to Skradin which is the gateway to the spectacular Krka Waterfalls. To get to Skradin, you have to navigate up a very narrow river and under two terrifyingly low bridges and under an even scarier low hanging power line. Once moored safely in Skradin, you catch a tourist boat up to the national park to walk around the breathtaking waterfalls. This was without doubt, the highlight of our trip through Croatia so far. The waterfalls are immense and at this time of year they are still flowing strong.

Zadar

Our next stop was the historic town of Zadar. Actually, we squeezed our boat into a tiny marina in the town of Preko and caught a ferry over to Zadar. Zadar is an interesting place, though much of its history was wiped out by allied bombing during WWII. Arguably, the only good thing that came from that, was the bombing uncovered a one forgotten about Roman Forum, that now takes pride in the middle of the old city. It never ceases to amaze me how common it is for European cities to use 2000 year old carved stones as park bench seating…

Otok Ist (Ist Island)

Otok Ist is a small island that seems to be a very popular holiday house location for the Croatian people. There must be close to 200 houses on the island. However when we were there in mid May, we saw about 10 people in total. Nevertheless, the town is lovely and is lined with pretty streets . During the holiday season, I suspect the place is pumping.

Otok Unije

This was just a stopover for us, however as is often the case, the places you don’t plan, often surpass expectations. The town was delightful (though strangely quiet) and there was a fantastic little sunset beach bar that offered a complimentary traditional lamb & cabbage broth to go with your drinks. 

Pula

Pula has a very industrial port that on first impressions is really quite grim. Once you enter the innermost part of the harbour though, you can't help but be gobsmacked by the enormous Roman Arena that overlooks the bay. Built in 27bc, the arena is arguably in better condition than the colosseum in Rome and is one of the 6 largest surviving Roman arenas. Like the coliseum, it has a vast network of underground tunnels that acted as a “backstage” to the events held in the arena. Exotic animals such as lions could be raised from underground, through the floor, right into the middle of the arena. Pula also boasts a large network of tunnels (the Zerostrasse) that were dug as shelters and storage during WW1 and expanded during WW2. They could shelter 50,000 people which was at the time, the entire population of Pula.  

Rovinj

Wow, Rovinj. Rovinj has everything. Beautiful beaches, Park land, resorts, A sprinkle of tourism, and a gorgeous old town citadel. We loved it so much that we dropped back in on our way back from Venice. If you’re planning a trip to Croatia, make sure you include Rovinj.

Umag

In our efforts to get closer to Venice, we stopped in Umag, the Northernmost town in Croatia. The town itself was ok and even had some cute little alleyways. The restaurant we had dinner at was uber cute in fact. It was here in Umag that we finally found another supermarket that sold Weetabix. We bought all of their stock. Sadly our experience was marred by the all night rave party that was so loud, we could still hear it halfway to Venice the next day. I kid you not. We were so far out to see that we could no longer see land. But we could still hear that same beat that had been playing all night.

Venice

Wow, sailing into the Venice lagoon was something else… An assault on the senses and terrifying at the same time. Yes it’s busy with water taxis and water buses (vaporetto) that have no regard for interlopers, but that’s easy to deal with. Navigating canals with no land mass as a reference, with only 40 cm of water under our keel, with speed boats passing you, creating a wake that is +/- 40cm, and the current, OMG the current… The beer on that first night was well deserved.  

Our first two nights in Venice were at one of the only recognised anchorages in the whole lagoon. Right next to what is known as the Haunted Island (Poveglia Island). The now abandoned buildings on the island were once used as a mental asylum, a quarantine station and also a plague hospital. The island has a plague pit that had as many as 100,000 bodies thrown into it. Needless to say, I didn’t tell Jackie about this until we had left, and thankfully we had no paranormal visitors.

Our Adventure Into The Canals of Venice:

On our second day in Venice, we decided to take our dinghy (ken) in to see the main Island of Venice. A 4.5 nautical mile trip down the same maze of canals we had sailed in through. We didn’t really have a plan other than taking some photos from a distance, however once there, we braved a crossing of the Grand Canal and ventured down to Piazza San Marco, Tourist mecca of the world.   It was here that we had the crazy idea to follow a gondola into the Venetian canals and do our own tour of Venice. No one told us we couldn’t do it, and there were no signs to say it was not allowed, and only one gondolier scowled at us for going the wrong way down a one way canal. As if this wasn’t surreal enough, we ended up giving one of the locals a lift from the back door of his apartment as the front door was blocked. The gondola in front of us refused to stop for him, so we did. Such an amazing, memorable day, and something you could only do if you sailed into Venice yourself.

The next day we moved to a marina north of Venice, where we caught a Vaporetto back into Venice to do the usual tourist stuff as well as catch up with family who happened to be there at the same time. It was really nice to see the quiet back blocks of Venice and the parts you probably wouldn’t see if you were there as a tourist for a limited time only.

"Ken in Venice", not to be confused with "Emily in Paris"

Burano

The Island of Burano is the third most popular tourist destination in the Venetian lagoon. It was also rather close to our marina Vaporetto stop, so we were determined to visit it. Boranos is famed for its brightly coloured houses that line a small network of canals. The place is pretty beyond belief and I’m not sure that photos do it justice. It's worth noting that there is the leaning bell tower that hangs precariously over the primary school playground that the locals don’t seem to be concerned about. And almost every house on the island has a colour coordinated shower screen / curtain that covers the front door. We assume this is so they can leave the front door open for cooling without having thousands of tourists peer into their houses.

Trieste

We loved our time in Venice, However the marina was becoming expensive and we needed to start heading south to meet up with Jeremy in Split Croatia. We exited the lagoon and headed East to the Italian border town/city of Trieste. Trieste has been ruled by numerous countries, but it was the Habsburgs of Austria that seemed to have the most impact on the city. The mix of Austrian architecture and Italian culture made for a really interesting place.

Rab

On our way back South through Croatia, we dropped into some of our favourite towns, some cute little anchorages we hadn’t been to before, and visited some super interesting towns as well. One such town was the historic town of Rab. Rab isn’t visited much by cruises as it's a little way off the North/South cruising route. We were very glad we went out of our way though. Its old town was a pleasure to stroll through and it offered lovely views…

Pag & The Kvarner Gulf

During Spring and the final weeks of Winter, there is a katabatic wind that can develop along the Croatian coast, called the “Bora”. The cold air up in the alps sinks while the warmer air in the Adriatic rises, resulting in a devastating North Easterly wind that strips the land of any new growth and fills sailors' minds with fear. 90+ knot winds are not uncommon. The Kvarner Gulf is a hotspot for the Bora. There is an enormous mountain range that lines the coast and plumets straight down into the gulf. The islands along this coast are bare and barren. They resemble a moonscape and in a strange kind of way, they are also very pretty. Right in the middle of this is the Island and town of Pag. A strange little outpost in a bay that is protected from the Bora.

Luka

This odd little town was to simply be a safe anchorage from some bad weather that was coming in, as well as a meeting point to catch up with some other sailing friends that were sailing past. We loved it so much that we stayed an extra day. I think it was its authentic vibe that attracted us. Either that or the amazing restaurants.

Sali

About 30 minutes sail further down the coast of the same island is the super busy and not so Authentic town of Sali. A charter boat hotspot that is buzzing with energy. To be fair, it really is an attractive town, which is why the charter boats flock here. But most important for us, it has a great supermarket for provisioning. 

Konoba Žmara

on Zut Island is a stunning little restaurant called Zmara. We stayed a night here and ate at the restaurant. The view was stunning, the food was great, but boy was it expensive… Nevertheless, we had a lovely night spoiling ourselves.

Murter

You can anchor a boat almost anywhere that is safe in the world, for free. No one has the right to charge you and even international shipping laws require a country to provide safe harbour to a vessel that finds itself in bad weather or a dangerous situation. Croatia is an exception to this, in that some of the most popular locations now charge you to anchor. We were now definitely in one of those popular locations. Right in the middle of this minefield of additional charges is the town (and island of same name) of Murter. Attached to the mainland via a small  bridge, Murter has all of the shops and facilities that you would expect on the mainland, however with an island feel. It also has free anchoring in a well protected bay. Utopia…

The Wall of Oštrica

After a week of dodging charter boats with their less than experienced captains, and their less than desired sense for safety and personal space, we were keen to find somewhere relatively remote for a couple of days relaxing. (Yes, cruising is not all relaxing and drinking cocktails). We headed for the Wall of Ostrica. The medieval wall itself was built across a narrow section of the peninsula, in an attempt to keep the population safe from the invading ottomans. It would have been easily passable by boat, so I’m not sure how successful it was. 

Primosten

Just around the corner from Ostrica is the gorgeous little town of Primosten. Home to another lovely old town and the second worst kebab ever eaten.

Back to Split to pick up Jeremy

We were finally back in Split, ready to pick up Jeremy from Split airport. We had quite a bit of provisioning and shopping to do first though. It had become very hot in the last few days, and cooking with gas inside the salon was very uncomfortable. It was time to buy an induction cooktop. 

We will have Jeremy for 14 days, so we plan to spend half in Croatia and half on the Italian East coast. After dropping him off at Bari airport, we continue our travels down to Otranto, before crossing back over the Adriatic to Greece. More on that in the next blog…